Navigating the Out-of-Body Experience
Page 21
Lunch: Light vegan or raw meal
G-Technique
Evening
Dinner: Vegan dinner (no alcohol)
20 minutes of Ganzfeld or Three-Dimensional Doorway Technique
Day 2
Morning
15–20 minutes of meditation
Breakfast: Fruit or smoothie
Daytime
Affirmations
Lunch: Light vegan or raw meal
Evening
Dinner: Vegan dinner (no alcohol)
20 minutes Ganzfeld or Three-Dimensional Doorway Technique
Day 3
Morning
20–30 minutes of meditation
Breakfast: Fruit or smoothie
Daytime
Affirmations
Lunch: Light vegan or raw meal
Evening
Dinner: Vegan dinner (no alcohol)
5 minutes G-Technique (lie down after and focus on energies)
Day 4
Morning
20–30 minutes of meditation
Breakfast: Fruit or smoothie
Daytime
Affirmations
Lunch: Light vegan or raw meal
Evening
Dinner: Vegan dinner (no alcohol)
30 minutes Ganzfeld and 15 minutes Three-Dimensional Doorway Technique
Day 5
Morning
20–30 minutes of meditation
Breakfast: Fruit or smoothie
Daytime
Affirmations
Lunch: Light vegan or raw meal
Evening
Dinner: Vegan dinner (no alcohol)
5 minutes G-Technique (lie down after and focus on energies)
Day 6
Morning
20–30 minutes of meditation
Breakfast: Fruit or smoothie
Daytime
Affirmations
Lunch: Light vegan or raw meal
Evening
Dinner: Vegan dinner (no alcohol)
30 minutes Ganzfeld and 15 minutes Three-Dimensional Doorway Technique
Day 7
Morning
20–30 minutes of meditation
Breakfast: Fruit or smoothie
Daytime
Affirmations
Lunch: Light vegan or raw meal
Evening
Dinner: Vegan dinner (no alcohol)
5 minutes G-Technique (lie down after and focus on energies)
Note: As mentioned earlier, this is not a method for achieving an OBE; it is merely for preparing your body/mind for the process of reaching the transphysical levels. This programme can also be combined with the Sleep Deprivation and Affirmation Techniques, as reaching these levels may be easier when in deeper states between wakefulness and unconsciousness.
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Glossary
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Akasha: In Eastern religions and philosophies, akasha is the underlying essence of life, or the element believed to bind earth, air, fire, and water together. It is also often translated as spirit or aether. (See also Akashic Record.)
Akashic Record: In esoteric tradition, the akashic record is usually considered to be a component of the astral plane that contains the imprint of all events, knowledge, and thought throughout all of time. Practitioners of astral projection claim that this record can be accessed and insights into the past can be gained through it.
Astral Projection: In New Age, esoteric, and occult circles, astral projection is used to refer to the process of leaving the body in the form of an astral or subtle body, which believers see as one of many distinct bodies existing within, or closely around, the physical body. The definition of astral projection also often includes the more dreamlike states closely related to lucid dreaming, while the out-of-body experience is usually more specifically the state of full separation from the physical body in some form. (See also Out-of-Body Experience.)
Astral Body: In esoteric tradition, the astral body is usually considered the second of the subtle bodies after the etheric body or double. The astral body is considered to be emotional in nature and to inhabit the astral planes, an environment beyond the physical world that is far more malleable and more influenced by thought than everyday reality.
Binaural Beats: (See Hemi-Sync®.)
Crowley, Aleister: Born Edward Alexander Crowley in England in 1875 to a Plymouth Brethren family, Crowley had deep-rooted issues from the beginning with his extreme religious upbringing. As a result, he adopted a complex form of occultism, which later developed into his own version of the work of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, called Thelema (Greek for “will”). This new version drew on many diverse influences, from yoga to science to the use of sexuality as a magical tool. Due to his formidable intellect and radical ideas, Crowley remains highly influential in many areas, including astral projection. (See also Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.)
Extrasensory Perception: Extrasensory perception (ESP) is a general term, thought to have been coined by the British explorer Sir Richard Burton in 1870. It refers to psychic abilities such as telepathy and clairvoyance.
Etheric Body: Usually seen as the first of the subtle bodies, closely related to the Earth plane of existence. Like the astral body, the etheric double is commonly referred to in esoteric and occult literature, especially Theosophy and related traditions. But while the astral body moves around the astral planes, the etheric body moves within everyday reality.
Fenwick, Peter: Dr. Peter Fenwick is a British consultant neuro-psychiatrist at Maudsley Hospital, London. He has published more than two hundred papers in medical and scientific journals on brain function, including several papers on meditation and altered states of consciousness. He is widely regarded as the leading clinical authority in the U.K. on the subject of near-death experiences.
Ganzfeld: The term Ganzfeld comes from German and means “total or complete field,” as in a field of sound or energy. The Ganzfeld technique is a mild form of sensory deprivation (sometimes called perceptual deprivation). It was developed in psychology, but has been widely used for many years within parapsychology as a way to induce a mild altered state, generally in members of the public volunteering for telepathy experiments.
Golden Dawn, The: (See Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.)
Hemi-Sync®: Developed by Robert A. Monroe and a group of scientists based on a brain effect discovered by Heinrich Wilhelm Dove in the nineteenth century called binaural beats. Hemi-Sync® is short for “hemispheric synchronization,” an innovative technology that uses slightly distinct sound frequencies played through headphones. From the differential between the two sound sources, a further frequency,
or binaural beat, is created. This in turn is thought to alter the brainwave state, allowing for a range of experiences including out-of-body experiences.
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, The: An occult order with heavy Masonic influences, based in England during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The order was progressive for its time in that it admitted women, and has been extremely influential on modern occult and New Age thought, mainly due to the writings of Israel Regardie and Aleister Crowley. Other important members included the Irish poet W. B. Yeats, and Allan Bennett, who established the first Buddhist organisation in Britain.
Immersion: A term often used to refer to systems designed to affect all of our sensory awareness in some way, such as virtual reality or sensory deprivation, which involve either giving our senses imagery generated by a computer or simply removing our normal reliance on our senses. These approaches can allow us to experience an impossible world, in the case of virtual reality, or allow us to focus on our inner processes and inner dialogue in sensory depriv
ation. My own works (Epicene, 1998; LAM, 2001; and The Living Image, 2004) all use forms of sensory immersion to allow people to experience their conscious awareness in new ways.
Institute of Noetic Sciences, The: The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) was founded in 1973 by Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell. It is a nonprofit research, education, and membership organisation based in Petaluma, California. IONS conducts, sponsors, and collaborates on leading-edge research into psi and other areas related to extended consciousness.
Lucid Dream: A dream involving a heightened degree of consciousness, often characterised by the dreamer being able to control the course of the dream. Many writers on out-of-body experiences see lucid dreams as a useful way of launching into the out-of-body state. Some authors claim there is little or no difference between the two states. (Please refer to the section on dream and out-of-body experiences in Chapter 2 for more on this subject.)
McMoneagle, Joseph: Joseph McMoneagle was one of the key remote viewers in the U.S. military program that ran for twenty years, often referred to as Stargate. In 1984, he received the Legion of Merit award for determining 150 essential pieces of information about locations, mainly in the Soviet Union, via psychic means. He continues to undertake private remote viewing work and has helped locate many missing persons using the same methods. (See also Remote Viewing.)
Mindfulness: Is a concept generally associated with the various Buddhist teachings. It is considered one of the signs of enlightenment. In the context of this book, it means a heightened awareness of the reality of things, not distorted by emotional ups and downs.
Monroe, Robert A.: Robert A. Monroe (1915–1995) was an American businessman who in the later part of his life began having out-of-body experiences as a result of experimenting with sound frequencies. He was initially seeking ways to improve our ability to learn while we sleep, but instead found that he had an out-of-body experience. With a group of volunteer scientists, he later went on to develop Hemi-Sync® technology and founded the Monroe Institute. He was also the author of three books: Journeys Out of the Body (1971), Far Journeys (1985), and Ultimate Journey (1994).
Monroe Institute, The: The Monroe Institute was founded by Robert A. Monroe in the 1970s in Charlottesville, Virginia. The institute is a nonprofit organisation focused on research into areas such as consciousness, education on related topics, and the use of Hemi-Sync®.
Near-Death Experience (NDE): An NDE is believed to take place when normal heart rate and brain activity has stopped, a condition which without medical intervention would lead to death. The outward signs of life are absent, yet the state is defined as “near death,” since normal heart and brain function can still be recovered. While individuals are in this state, they appear to experience a form of independent consciousness that can observe events around the area of the physical body, or a range of other phenomena. A near-death experience appears to suggest an independent consciousness or spirit that can travel to nonphysical levels of reality. In many cases, the person will “see” a dark tunnel with a light at the end, where sometimes they will be greeted by their dead relatives. NDEs often include an all-pervading white light, characterised by a feeling of unconditional love and compassion. There have been many collections of accounts and studies on the subject, the most notable being by Pim Van Lommel, Peter Fenwick, Penny Sartori, and Jeffery Long.
Out-of-Body Experience (OBE or OOBE): An out-of-body experience is characterised by sensory awareness of total separation from one’s physical body, in the form of a “double” or independent consciousness, whilst usually still being able to see and reason. The experience often involves perceiving the body from above, travel over distances, and sometimes interaction with others. The OBE can also lead to what appear to be other levels of reality, and is generally described as “being as real as everyday reality.”
Parapsychology: A scientific discipline that began in a formal sense with the founding of the Society for Psychical Research in London in 1882. The field is focused on the use of the scientific method for the study of anomalous phenomena and questions related to the survival of consciousness after death. After 130 years of exploration, the field of parapsychology still faces much prejudice and little funding, but despite this has established evidence, at least as consistent as in other fields, showing that psychic abilities, such as telepathy or precognition, are scientifically demonstrable. (See also Society for Psychical Research.)
Placebo effect: The placebo effect is a measurable change in the health or wellbeing of a patient who is receiving some form of treatment that cannot be attributed to the treatment itself. In medical tests, it is common to give some of the participants a dummy pill such as a sugar pill and others the real medicine. Many of the people receiving the dummy pill will report improvements consistent with what they believe the pill was for.
Presence: Presence as a spiritual concept has become popular in recent years through the work of Eckhart Tolle. I would define it as a state of awareness of the present moment, which frees us from our emotions and beliefs about the past and future. If we see just what is, there is no emotional conflict deriving from what happened before, or what we imagine might happen in the future, The result is we are simply clear and aware. (See also Mindfulness.)
Psi: Psi is sometimes incorrectly pronounced as the separate initials, P S I, but is actually not an abbreviation; it is the twenty-third letter of the Greek alphabet, a symbol also used for more mainstream forms of psychology. It is seen as a neutral or scientific term for anomalous psychology, which would include things like psychic abilities and out-of-body experiences, but without any esoteric or supernatural associations. (See also Parapsychology.)
Psychic Research: (See Parapsychology.)
Precognition: The conscious awareness of a future event, usually through a mental image or dream state. Literally pre, as in “before” and cognition, as in “thought.”
Presentiment: Similar to precognition in that presentiment is the sensing of a future event, yet presentiment is essentially the feeling rather than a thought or vision. Presentiment is also often more unconscious, especially when it is the focus in parapsychological testing, as in the work of Dean Radin, for example. Within these experiments, tiny changes in skin conductance, eye movement, or brain activity indicate an unconscious reaction to a shocking image that has yet to be shown. The subjects will be totally unaware of their reaction, yet by using advanced equipment, scientists such as Radin can monitor these reactions and demonstrate that some form of awareness of future events does occur.
Quantum Entanglement: In Quantum Physics, Entanglement refers to the separation of particles, such as photons (light particles) that were once connected, resulting in a state in which they continue to act as if they were one system or still entangled over any distance. This idea is interesting to this book because physicists such as Brian Josephson have put forward a theory (Biological Utilisation of Quantum Non-locality) that explores the possibility that Entanglement could be related to the function of psychic abilities in humans and other animals—essentially that brains, or consciousness itself, could be entangled and therefore experience elements of the perceptions of another person from a distance. This offers a scientific framework for how telepathy, to gave one example, could be possible.
Quantum Physics: Also called Quantum Mechanics or Quantum Theory, it is a form of science that began in approximately 1900, when Max Planck realised that atoms could only vibrate at limited, or quantised, frequencies. Quantum physics is an extremely complex and successful area of science dealing with indivisible units of energy called quanta that exist in the Quantum realm (the extremely small levels of reality). Quantum objects can exist in multiple states, and even at the same time. All of this makes this area extremely paradoxical and in many ways it contradicts the notion of an objective reality. For those interested to learn more on how this relates to the out-of-body state and the issues in this boo
k, I would recommend the work of physicist and author of My Big TOE (Theory Of Everything), Thomas Campbell.
Radin, Dean: Dean Radin is one of the leading U.S. researchers into psi and related areas. He is currently senior scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) and adjunct faculty in the department of psychology at Sonoma State University. He is the author of two books, Entangled Minds and The Conscious Universe, which are widely considered the best introductions to parapsychology.
Remote Viewing: During the Cold War period, the U.S. military founded a secret program to investigate the use of psychic intelligence gathering. The program, known as Project Stargate, involved several phases and smaller sub-projects exploring different areas as ideas and methodologies developed. The project ran for twenty years and produced significant evidence for psychic functioning. Jessica Utts, who assessed the results of the project wrote, “It is clear to this author that anomalous cognition is possible and has been demonstrated. This conclusion is not based on belief, but rather on commonly accepted scientific criteria.”1 Several of the original members of the project are still active and have continued to offer evidence for psi, among them Ingo Swann and Joseph McMoneagle.
Sheldrake, Rupert: Dr. Rupert Sheldrake is a British biologist and psi researcher based in London. He is the author of more than eight scientific papers and ten books. He studied natural sciences at Cambridge University and philosophy at Harvard, and was also director of studies and a fellow of Clare College, Cambridge. He was the director of the Perrot-Warrick Project from 2005 to 2010, one of the few projects supporting parapsychological research.
Silver Cord: An object, somewhat like an umbilical cord made of energy, described by some as connecting the subtle body with the physical body. Although the concept of the silver cord has been around for a very long time—some even believing there are references to it in the Bible (Ecclesiastes 12:6)— it was likely Sylvan Muldoon and the book Projection of the Astral Body that popularized the notion. In recent years the presence of the cord in OBEs has become less commonly reported.